35 weeks and celebrating my journey so far.

Again it has taken me longer than I wanted to write here. The entire July has been so busy with subbing, teaching my own classes, being away for a few days in a wellness resort, and having a beautiful Baby Blessing Ceremony. The ceremony was magical and put together by my yoga sisters with the hostess being Shanine, Jennifer and Nathalie. This ceremony is a beautiful right of passage for mothers who are expecting and gives strength and deep spiritual connection to the baby and the birthing process. I loved the bead bracelet blessing the most. Everyone invited to the ceremony was asked to bring a bead and a blessing in the form of motherly advice and wishes for mother and baby. The beads were thread together into a necklace that I could have as a focal point and symbol of my support network during birth and into motherhood. As we sat in the circle each woman gave her blessing/good wish and we chanted OM to seal it. It was truly touching and brought tears to my eyes. I felt my baby girl move and respond to the beautiful chanting and energy that was being created. I feel so luck to be a part of such loving and wise circle of women. We also had a henna artist come and do some body art. I got my belly done again as a symbol of connection with all of the other women and the baby.

So a little update on my pregnancy. It's really bizarre because I can see how easy it is to give into a negative thinking at this point. I am 35 weeks pregnant and yes sure my belly feels a lot bigger, the baby is big, she really has no room to move so whenever she is active I really feel it a lot, the jabbing and poking is crazy but I still love it anyway, the pressure in the bladder and pelvic floor is pretty intense, braxton hicks are not bad and my yoga practice is obviously modified a lot. Non of these things are getting me down though. I am working around them. I am modifying my yoga poses, mostly to accomodate my belly as my stamina is still great. I hear that I am "tiny" all the time but my belly still feels big and heavy to me lol. I am not getting impatient nor anxious about wanting the baby out. I am thinking this is my pregnancy, I should enjoy these last few weeks because I will never be pregnant with this particular baby again. So I am keeping active by teaching over 7 classes a week, doing my own yoga practice, getting the house organized, going for walks and enjoying my social life. It's so great to have so many wonderful friends and students surrounding me on daily basis. I am also practicing my hypnobirthing and meditate daily to check in with myself, my body and my baby. I set intention every day and that helps me to stay grounded. Today it was gratitude and having my heart open to more blessings. Eating wise I am still having most of my meals raw or as close to raw as I can. I have gained a total of 18 pounds so far and weighting at 141 pounds.